Blog Archives
Happy Birthday to Chazz Palminteri
Happy Birthday to Chazz Palminteri! He turns 61 years old today.
Chazz was born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri. It’s a good thing he goes by Chazz because I don’t think anybody could become famous with a name like Calogero.
Palminteri is known for his gangster/crime dramas. He usually plays the tough-guy gangster in charge.
My favorite Palminteri movie is the Robert De Niro directed A Bronx Tale (1993). De Niro also had a big part in the film.
The two also acted opposite each other in the gangster movie satire comedy Analyze This (1999).
Chazz was on the right side of the law in The Usual Suspects (1995).
He didn’t seem to know which side he was on in Running Scared (2006).
His performances are usually pretty explosive, so it should be amusing so see him in videogame form. Tomorrow you will be able to play the new Uprising add-on for Sony Playstation 3’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II. This add-on has already been available for Xbox 360 gamers for about a month. As part of the map pack there is a new Zombies experience called ‘Mob of the Dead.’ Chazz contributes his voice to the character Salvatore ‘Sal’ DeLuca. He joins the likes of Ray Liotta, Michael Madsen, and Joe Pantoliano who are all most known for their roles in gangster movies. Famous gangster movie icons killing zombies, let me just grab my controller.
Happy Birthday to Tim Roth
Happy Birthday to Tim Roth! The highly talented actor turns 52 today.
What a strange coincidence that Mr. Orange from Reservoir Dogs (1992) was born a day after his co-star Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). Well, 22 years and one day to be exact. Another coincidence is that both actors are probably most popular for the same 2 movies, Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994). They both played their own part in helping to make Quentin Tarantino famous and in return he helped to boost their careers.
Even though Roth never really reached superstar status, he has still had a pretty successful career. Besides the 2 films that I mentioned, my other favorite Tim Roth films are
The Legend of 1900 (1998),
Deceiver (1997), and
Gridlock’d (1997).
What is your favorite Tim Roth movie?
Note: Random movie connection: Chris Penn played Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs and he was also in Deceiver with Tim Roth. It’s interesting to me how often actors work together in multiple different movies or work with the same directors on different films.
Happy Birthday to Harvey Keitel
Happy Birthday to Harvey Keitel! The actor who is probably most famously known for playing Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) turns 74 today. Mr. White has got to be my favorite Keitel character, although he has had a number of other very solid roles. My other favorite Harvey Keitel Characters are:
Winston ‘The Wolf’ Wolfe in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994)
Ray Donlan in Cop Land (1997)
Dad in Little Nicky (2000)
Roy Egan in City of Industry (1997)
Jack Crawford in Red Dragon (2002)
Hal in Thelma & Louise (1991)
I could not stand Keitel as The Lieutenant in Bad Lieutenant (1992). At the time that I watched that movie, it was so bad that I turned it off and didn’t finish it. I never went back and gave it another chance. It was so awful that I don’t think I will ever feel the need to revisit it.
Which of Harvey Keitel’s characters do you like the best and which do you like the worst?
Happy Birthday to Katharine Hepburn
Happy Birthday to Katharine Hepburn! She would have turned 106 years old today. She passed away when she was 96.
My favorite Hepburn movies were those that she made with Cary Grant. They made 4 films together (Bringing up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Holiday (1938), and Sylvia Scarlett (1935).)
Happy Birthday to Albert Finney
Happy Birthday to Albert Finney! He turns 77 today.
Finney is an excellent character actor who started out making TV movies in the 50’s and has had many wonderful supporting roles in his career as an actor. My favorite Finney films are Miller’s Crossing (1990), Big Fish (2003), and most recently Skyfall (2012).
Happy Birthday to Gary Cooper
Happy Birthday to Gary Cooper! The Hollywood legend would have been 112 years old today. He died on May 13, 1961 at age 60. He has been gone for almost as long as he lived. But, he lives on in his classic films.
I salute you Sergeant York!
Happy Birthday to George Clooney
Happy Birthday to George Clooney! He turns 52 today.
Clooney is a superb actor when he wants to be. He has been in a number of solid movies. However, he has also managed to be a part of a number of pretty terrible movies.
What do you think is George Clooney’s worst movie?
Happy Birthday to Dwayne Johnson “The Rock”
Happy Birthday to Dwayne Johnson! “The Rock” turns 41 today.
The big man has got 2 movies in the theatre right now (G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) and Pain & Gain (2013)) with another one on the way in a few weeks (Fast & Furious 6 (2013)).
Do you like Dwayne Johnson better as a wrestler or an actor?
Happy Birthday to Jerry Seinfeld
Happy Birthday to Jerry Seinfeld! He turns 59 today.
Although I mainly like to write about movies, I wanted to recognize Jerry on his birthday because I absolutely love his TV show Seinfeld.
What is your favorite Seinfeld episode?
Most of them are so good that I don’t think that I could come up with a favorite.
Happy Birthday to Daniel Day-Lewis
Happy Birthday to Daniel Day-Lewis! He turns 56 today.
He most recently won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Lincoln (2012). He was nominated for Best Actor 5 different times and he won 3 times. Besides Lincoln, the other 2 movies that he won for were There will be Blood (2007) and My Left Foot (1989).
My favorite Daniel Day-Lewis movies are The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Gangs of New York (2002).
Can you name the 2 movies that he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, but didn’t win?
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